Eastern Economic Journal

, Volume 38, Issue 2, pp 143–166 | Cite as

Political Ideology and Economic Freedom Across Canadian Provinces

  • Christian Bjørnskov
  • Niklas Potrafke
Article
First Online:

Abstract

This paper examines how political ideology influenced economic freedom across the Canadian provinces. We analyze the data set of economic freedom indicators compiled by the Fraser Institute in 10 Canadian provinces over the 1981–2005 period and introduce two different indices of political ideology: government and parliament ideology. The results suggest that government ideology influenced labor market reforms: market-oriented governments promoted liberalization of the labor market. Parliamentary ideology did not influence economic liberalization at all. This finding (1) identifies differences between leftist and rightwing governments concerning the role of government in the economy and (2) indicates that ideological polarization concerns governments but less parliamentary fractions in the Canadian provinces.

Keywords

economic freedom taxation regulations ideology panel data 

JEL Classifications

O51 P16 R50 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We thank Eric Crampton, Veronique Jerome-Speziari, Mickael Melki, Heinrich Ursprung, Mor Zahavi, the participants of the Australasian Public Choice Meeting 2009 in Melbourne, the Public Choice Meeting 2010 in Monterey, the European Public Choice Meeting 2010 in Izmir, the Silvaplana Workshop on Political Economy 2010 and three anonymous referees for helpful hints and suggestions.

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Copyright information

© Eastern Economic Association 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Christian Bjørnskov
    • 1
  • Niklas Potrafke
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of EconomicsAarhus School of Business, Aarhus UniversityÅbyhøjDenmark
  2. 2.Department of EconomicsUniversity of KonstanzBerlinGermany

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